Tu Hoang

I really enjoy Higginbotham's writing style.

However, given that I've got introduced to functional programming through Haskell and got introduced to Lisp through Racket, and got drawn to Clojure because of its reputation for pragmatism, this book is not my cup of tea!

Still thank this book for introducing me to Emacs <3

Steinback created some of the most interesting characters I've met in fiction but it feels like he was so lazy that he left his work incomplete.

I should have given Peter Zinoman 5* for his well-researched introduction. The essay did more than perfect in heightening my re-reading experience. Zinoman deserves recognition for his analysis of nature of Vietnamese Modernism.
Despite enjoying the introduction so much, I found Zino's translation quite disappointing. Many characters' signature catchphrases such as “Em chã”, “Thếnày thì nước mẹ gì”, “Biết rồi, khổ lắm! Nói mãi” (respectively translated as “No way!”, “What a pain in the -“, “I know! I know! What a pain! Shut up, already”) get lost in translation. Vu Trong Phung's ironical remarks, what make Dumb Luck so exquisite in its original text, were not well-delivered in translation. For instance, in chapter VI: “Thật là một ông lang băm có danh vọng!” (literally means “What an ambitious charlatan!”) was translated into “His [the quack's] reputation for quackery is unrivaled”. There are many mistranslations of this kind, though doesn't affect the plot as a whole, they ruined the charming of Vu Trong Phung's prose.

I'm not nitpicking. I just feel like this translation could have been done justice if Peter Zinoman had paid more attention to details. Anyway, thank you, Zinoman and your team for introducing this best Vietnamese modernist novel to international attention!

Stories deal with social stratification, role of religion and nature of beauty.

Good stories don't necessarily teach me something immediately: they grow seeds of something personal that keep me contemplating about them. I love Norwegian Wood as the trail the story left in me still linger comforting me through hard times, reminding me that there are a lot of things that if I try to use logic to analyse I will put myself deeper in confusion.

I highly appreciate this novel for its thematic ambitions. ‘White Noise' shed lights on superficial aspects of modern consumerist societies and on our modern day obsession with data to the point of worshiping them. Despite all the characters' desperate attempts of collecting data and making sense of their life events, they both consciously choose to remain ignorant as artificial attempt to cling to illusional sense of control.

However, this story is worthless. The characters lack personalities. The philosophical dialogues lack epistemological foundation, which make them sound dull and vague. When I reached the final page of this book, I found myself having wasted time reading Jack's self-justification for his irresponsibility and pretentiousness. This novel has no relevance at communities that value intimate human connections over intellectual hypocrisy.